Droylsden 2 Clitheroe 0

Blues put up a good performance against 3rd place Droylsden and were unfortunate to come away without any points.

The early exchanges were pretty even with neither keeper having to make a save until the 26th minute, when Andrew Dawber made a fingertip save from Kevin Leadbetter.

Droylsden had the better of the remainder of the half but the Blues defended well. It took a nice piece of skill by Shaun Myler in the 39th minute to break the deadlock. Myler received a pass from Leadbetter and he turned and hit a powerful shot which gave Dawber no chance.

Half time 0-1

Blues made an attacking change on 49 minutes with Richard Burns replacing Simon Garner. Within a minute Liam Hutchinson had our best effort so far, when he got through and his shot from an angle just went wide of the post. On 55 minutes another Hutchinson shot from thirty yards out wasn't far way.

Seydou Bamba replaced Zach Clark on 65 minutes and played on the left side of midfield, with Alex Ralph switching to the right. Danny Wilkins followed Garner and David Lynch in to the referees notebook with two fouls within a couple of minutes.

On 73 minutes, Alex Ralph hit a curling shot from the edge of the box, which Droylsden keeper Russ Saunders had to make a fine save.
Ralph made it booking number four of the Blues for a mistimed tackle two minutes later.

Liam Hutchinson had another good opportunity on 83 minutes, but he couldn't get enough power in to his shot. Neville Nelson replaced James Walker with three minutes remaining and Blues went with three up front. The 2nd goal for Droylsden came in stoppage time, when the Blues defence failed to clear and Stephen Hall blasted a shot in to the top corner.

That gave the score a rather unfair slant on the game, but Simon Garner was pleased with the effort and determination shown by his team which bodes well for future games.